More than a standalone movie, Abhishek Pathak’s Drishyam 3 works best as the third act of Drishyam, if it were a consolidated crime thriller instead of a trilogy. The conflict gets set in Nishikant Kamat’s first part (2020) when Sam dies at the hands of Vijay Salganonkar’s (Ajay Devgn) family. The plot thickens in Pathak’s Drishyam 2 (2022) before the resolution comes in at a cinematic high in Drishyam: The Conclusion, which released this past Friday on the befitting date of October 2. Like for the Goa police, pav bhaji, Maharaj ji ka satsang, and film watching in Panjim (which film did they watch? Drishyam 3?) were all distractions even for the audience. All this while, unreliable narrator Salgaonkar was doing what he does best — telling us a story through drishyam (visuals).The movie-watching underdogIn the first Drishyam, we’re introduced to Vijay Salgaonkar, a fourth class dropout whose only means to securing an education has been watching movies. He’s particularly on a steady diet of thrillers. “They’ve edited it with fast cuts and taking the audience for a ride. On top of that is the pounding music! So that it seems a lot is going on. But nothing is really happening. You need to feel the tension,” he tells his subordinate, probably also referring to the Drishyam trilogy that takes its own sweet time to lure the audience in.At one point, Salgaonkar is also seen watching Vipul Shah’s 2005 family drama Waqt: The Race Against Time. Though that’s far from being a crime thriller, it does sound like a tagline to the Drishyam franchise itself. Because as the films unfold, we realize that every step of the way, Salgaonkar was far ahead of anyone else in the race against time.After his family panics following the murder of Sam, the only son of Goa Police Inspector General Meera Deshmukh (Tabu), Salgaonkar devises a foolproof plan. He takes his family for an outing in Panjim the next day in order to crystallize the same chronology in granular detail when the police eventually interrogates them. Not just that, he even lives out that delayed reality for all the other eyewitnesses involved — the restaurant owner and the cinema projector operator among others — so that their testimonies sync with those of his family. Since Indians all across have grown up on movies, he uses that very device of visual memory as his weapon of choice.So, when the first part ends, Salgaonkar has an upper hand. But like most sequels, the conflict is brought back with a new lens. Enter: Akshaye Khanna, who takes over the case from Tabu, capitalizing on his objective gaze sans personal prejudice. But to Salgaonkar, he’s not the chief antagonist, but yet another actor just playing his part (ironic, since that’s what it turned out to be, given Khanna’s sudden exit from the franchise before Drishyam 3). To make the stakes more implausible yet interesting, he brings in Saurabh Shukla’s character, an author who churns out a book out of the chain of events Salgaonkar has preempted. Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam is all about family. But more than that, it’s about the movies.When the court dismisses the state’s case against Salgaonkar on the argument that the police is trying to frame a common man and his family by recreating events of a book, that twist seems far too convenient and far-fetched. But Shukla’s author character is brought back again in Drishyam 3 to explain the rationale communicated to him by Salgaonkar — “Films need not to be real. They just need to seem and feel real.” That then becomes the spiritual fulcrum of not only the threequel, but also the trilogy.Suddenly, as Drishyam 3 draws to a close, the audience realize that Salgaonkar had been pulling the puppet strings all along. He uses the fame he gains from the events in the first part to rise the ranks and become a theatre owner from a DVD store owner. The events of the sequel allow him to further gain traction in his career, and become a film producer. But little do we know he’s been producing a film all along — the film that we’ve been watching for the past 11 years.Story continues below this adThrough what’s described as Salgaonkar’s three-part chakravyuh, the audience gradually uncovers that the sequel wasn’t actually the second act, but the beginning of the second half of the film that’s Drishyam. The climax of the first part boats of the cinematic high and narrative clencher of the interval block, and Drishyam 2 is merely a stepping stone to the rousing conclusion in Drishyam 3. Like every time, Salgaonkar was way ahead in the game, planning his course of action in Drishyam 2 itself, instead of saving it for the epic conclusion. Mohanlal as Georgekutty in Drishyam 3.A step above Mohanlal’s Drishyam 3Spoiler alertTill the first two parts, Devgn’s Drishyam remained mostly faithful to its original source material, Jeetu Joseph’s films Drishyam and Drishyam 2 respectively, starring Mohanlal as Georgekutty, the Malayalam counterpart of Vijay Salgaonkar. But after the Malayalam Drishyam 3 didn’t live up to the hype, Pathak and Devgn changed the course of their franchise, taking a completely new direction. However, this ‘new’ direction neatly ties in with the spirit of the first part. It also weaves in the polarizing reaction towards Malayalam Drishyam 3 to tell a slightly deceptive story about family.Pathak’s Drishyam 3 begins with Rajat Kapoor’s character Mahesh Deshmukh vowing to reopen the case and put Salgaonkar behind the bars, after his wife Meera tries to end her life out of depression. When Jaideep Ahlawat’s DCP hits back at Mahesh, asking him if he’s a servant who reopens the case at his beck and call, it’s also a dig at the Malayalam Drishyam 3 which takes too many swings to take the story forward. In that version, Siddique (who plays the Malayalam counterpart of Mahesh) turns evil, a far cry from the fairly balanced sympathizer he is in the first two parts.Story continues below this adSince Salgaonkar/Georgekutty’s purported narrative throughout the franchise has been about protecting the family, it makes narrative sense to have another father determined to protect his family by avenging the death of his son. So, when Siddique’s character steps up, it should’ve made for a riveting clash of the patriarchs. But what follows is a long-drawn, unwarranted climactic twist in which Georgekutty beats up his daughter in order to frame a troublesome cop. His argument was simple — beating up his daughter was in the larger interest of protecting his family from conviction. But it was not only problematic to watch, but also felt like a melodramatic copout.Surely, when the audience enter a theatre, they want to immerse themselves in the emotion and the drama. But not at the cost of the film’s own voice. So, when Pathak’s Drishyam 3 avoids going down that path and instead pays a tribute to the movies, it all makes complete sense. When Salgaonkar pulls out his final trick from the hat, and the skeletons in his closet come tumbling out (pun intended), he underlines what the Drishyam franchise has always been about — movies. Yes, family is at its heart too, but when his wife Nandini (Shriya Saran) breaks out of the character of the hapless wife, the film exposes family as just a visual decoy to make the police — and the audience — forget that Salgaonkar’s superhero is watching movies.As the Malayalam Drishyam 3 revealed, family in fact turns out to be Georgekutty’s protagonist. While he manages to get his family to dodge conviction yet again — paving the path ahead for another part — it comes at the cost of not only his daughter’s injuries, but also the audience’s dissatisfaction. By making his Drishyam 3 all about the movies, Pathak underscores that while a family man may often have to sacrifice a part of his conscience for the sake of his family, a cinephile’s win is written in the movie stars. Whether it’s a thriller like Drishyam or a family drama like Waqt, it’s always the sacrificial patriarch who pays a heavy price, while the underdog movie buff wins the race against time.